Tim Carmody (@tcarmody) of WIRED’s (@wired) Epicenter (@epicenterblog) in a commentary on CNN.com (@cnn) bemoans how ebook innovation is being stymied by big business. An example he sites is Push Pop Press (@pushpoppress), an e-publishing startup founded by ex-Apple engineers Mike Matas (@mike_matas) and Kimon Tsinteris (@kimon), being acquired by Facebook.
Push Pop published one multimedia book for the iPad, Al Gore's Our Choice: A Plan to Solve the Climate Crisis [see Somersault’s blogpost about it, “A Next-generation Digital Book”]....
At that time, Push Pop...sought to create a ‘publishing platform for authors, publishers and artists to turn their books into interactive iPad or iPhone apps -- no programming skills required.’
Facebook has no interest in publishing interactive ebooks. According to Push Pop, ‘there are no plans to continue publishing new titles or building out our publishing platform that was in private beta.’ ....
We sorely need independent innovation in digital publishing. We need talented people who are willing to try things. Meanwhile, all of the money, attention, and technological skill is marching in the opposite direction.
Most big media companies with plenty of capital and deep technical talent see few if any reasons to innovate or invest in books....
The ideas are there; the talent is there; the readers are there. But when the three come together, inevitably someone else can figure out a way to use the technology for a different end. The better and more experimental it is, the more likely this is true.
Do you agree or disagree?